Harry Potter After the War
by Lolly386
Summary: This story is Harry's life after the last seen in the headmasters office. I have tried to stay true to what Rowling has said about the things that happen after the story and have also added some of my own. Please read i hope you enjoy it! PLEASE REVIEW
1. A New Beginning

Harry, Ron and Hermione made their way back down the spiral staircase and headed towards the Great Hall. As they reached the entrance hall Harry braced himself for the inevitable wave of people who were surely going to bombard him as soon as he entered the room. However the sight that awaited him surprised him. Unlike the bustling mass of people who had previously been moving around prior to his assent to the headmaster's office with Ron and Hermione, the room was now filled with many rows of a strange assortment of chairs. And every single person who fought in the war and what appeared to be most of their family, as well as the entire Ministry of Magic was seated upon them. Up on a high stage stood Kingsley and Professor McGonagall who until they had entered had been addressing the crowd. Harry knew it was coming before it actually happened and turned a bright shade of scarlet. When McGonagall and Kinsley noticed them they stopped talking abruptly and stared at them. The rest of the people in the room followed their line of sight and when they saw Harry, Ron and Hermione erupted in to absurdly loud applause and cheers. McGonagall beckoned them up towards the stage. They made their way through the narrow passage left between the rows of people. Ron and Hermione grinning ear to ear, surprised but pleased to find them self's in the middle of such happiness. Harry however could only manage a weak smile. He was exhausted having not seeped for well over 24 hours and having had to run around with very little nourishment. When they finally reached the base of the stage, as they made to go sit down with the remaining Weasley's McGonagall called "Potter would you mind joining us up here please?" she requested. Harry glanced at Ron and Hermione who both gave him encouraging smiles before joining hands and heading towards the Weasley's and seating themselves at the end of the row next to Percy. Mrs Weasley was crying silent tears and next to her George stared off in to space with a tear stricken face. Harry felt his heart wrench at the thought of Fred. Harry slowly made his way up the steps and the cheers subsided as Kingsley started to speak again "As I was saying, as the temporary Minister for Magic I thank all those who participated in our efforts to free the magical world from the evil grasp of Lord Voldemort. And as a token of the whole world wide wizarding community I am going to award every member who fought in the battle a Order of Merlin 2supnd/sup class and the following Luna Lovegood, Nevile Longbottom, Ginny Weasley, Hermonie Granger and Ron Weasley all Order of Merlin 1supst/sup Class for their extraordinary contribution to brining down the so called Dark Lord." Following the announcement an exclamation of noise echoed around the room. Harry looked at the Weasley's knowing that the Gold that would come from Ron and Ginny's winnings would mean that they would never have to worry about money again. The shock had made Mrs Weasley start sobbing and Mr Weasley had a dazed look on his face while trying to comfort his wife. Ron and Hermione had exchanged dazzling smiles before falling in to a deep kiss. And Ginny… Ginny with her long fiery red hair cascading down her back smiling and hugging Luna. Harry wondered if they could ever be the same again. The news even momentarily brought George out of his gaze. When the voices subsided Kinsley continued. "As well as this a special plaque will be made baring all the names of those who fought in the battle and will be placed in every magical place all over the world so everyone can know of your bravery" More applause. "I can not express the deepness of my condolences to those of you who losed someone to the war. However as well as the plaque a monument will go along side baring the names of those brave souls who losed their life's so we could live in peace and freedom." At this Mrs Weasley could no longer stand it and had to be escorted out of the room. In fact every one now had silent tears rolling down their faces. McGonagall now spoke with her confidant yet soothing voice. "All the house dormitories have now been extended to accommodate those who wish to stay for the remembrance tomorrow and wish to help with the clear up. The house elves will round shortly with food. And as Headmistress of this school and on behalf of the ministry I would like to present Harry Potter with the most prestigious award possible to give, and in fact had to be created to emphasise the immensity of what he a has done for the world. I present him with the Albus Dumbledore peace award for astounding bravery." The noise made by the Weasley's alone was immense. Harry turned a deep shade of red and then McGonagall dismissed every one and approached him. Before he could say a word she pointed her wand at him and said "No Potter you will accept it and no arguments" Harry swallowed his words and said instead "Thank you professor but if you will excuse me I need to sleep" She nodded and strode of towards Neville. Harry made his excuse and made his way up to Gryffindor tower and flung himself on his bed and all thought vanished. And for once no dreams bothered him. He was at peace. And ready to start his new beginning./span/p


	2. Making amends

p class="MsoNormal"strongspanspan style="font-size: 14pt;"Authors notes: I would like to thank you for all the /spanspan style="font-size: 19px;"reviews and hope you continue to read./spanspan style="font-size: 14pt;" /span/span/strong/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"Harry was knew he was awake because a stream of thoughts rattled around in his He's gone. Dead. Its over. He was no longer bound to him. He was free. But No, oh god. Fred, Collin, Remus and Tonks…/em The list of all those who died ran through his head leading him to start sobbing in to his pillow. He distantly heard the door to the room open and through his tears he saw a flash of long red hair dashing towards him. And before he knew it Ginny had rapped his arms around him and he continued to cry in to her shoulder. As he cried she stroked his hair and whispered words of comfort. After awhile Harry drew away and took a shaky breath before beginning "Look Ginny. I know what I said to you before I left. And I meant it because if anything had happened to you I could never forgive my self. He would of … he…" He struggled for words. The image of Ginny being torched and dead had imprinted themselves on the inside of his mind and were causing him a great deal of distress."I know" he said as she looked at him with questioning eyes, wiling him to go on. And so he did."I did what I thought I had to do to protect you. And even though I knew I couldn't and I shouldn't. I thought of you every day and just the thought of you gave me strength I never knew I possessed."He paused."As I was walking in to the forest. Towards what I convinced myself was to my death. I thought of you and about how if I died it would mean you could live. Live in a world free of Voldemort. Free of war. And I would make the same decision all over again. I would die for you because you're the light in my world and symbolise every thing I could ever hope for. I love you." He said the last words very quietly and did not meet his green eyes with her brown ones. Then her soft voice came through his left ear speaking the words"I love you to." He glanced up at her beautiful face with astonishment etched across his and before he knew it she had flung her arms around his neck and pulled him down for a sweet kiss. When the kiss did finally end they stared at each other both emanating powerful vibes of love for each other. Both practically glowing when Ginny sank her fist Into Harry's stomach and said"Don't you ever scare me like that again"Harry nodded fervently before grinning at her and saying"So does that mean we are back together?" She hit his arm before striding back towards the door and leaned against the frame saying."You had better get ready." And walked off back down stairs. A sense of dread filled Harry. Today was the day of the funeral. /p 


	3. Silver Sky

p class="MsoNormal"When Harry was finally washed and dressed he made his way down to the common room. Ron and Hermione were both sitting with their backs to the stairs deep in convocation. Ron had obviously herd him enter the room and turned to look at him." Oh, hi Harry" The black robes Ron and Hermione were wearing were quite a contrast to their puffy red eyes. Harry had found a jet black set of robes and a ham sandwich on his bed side table. At some point while he had been in the shower a house elf must have come and put them there. Then with out another word they stared to walk down through the school and out on to the grounds were the first of many funerals were to be held. First a large act of remembrance was to be held for all those who wished to pay their respects to the dead. As Fred's , Tonks and Lupin's funeral was not until later in the day harry had planned to also go to Collins and Lavenders as well as ( to Ron's surprise ) Snape's. As every on took to their seats, Hagrid and Grawp at the back. Hagrid who had taken out a large table cloth sized handkerchief and blown it to as well as sobbed had blown several mourners in front of him hats away. It would have been hilarious if not for the severity of the seen. Harry, Ron and Hermione made their way towards a flaming mass of red hair that Harry recognised as the Weasley's. They to took their seats, Harry next to Ginny who immediately, as if by instinct took his hand. Harry offered her weak smile which she retuned. Kingsley took to the stage and said "sonours" The next time he spoke his voice echoed around the grounds sending birds out of the forbidden forest. "Thank you for joining us here today to remember all those who have lost their lives fighting for a better future. I can't think of any one better to talk about these brave, brave people then our hero himself Mr Harry Potter." Polite applause echoed across the crowd. Harry knew it was coming since kingsely had asked him yesterday as he had been leaving the great hall. Harry had only agreed because he felt he had a duty to his friends both dead and living. He had spent most of that morning planning what he was going to say. But no matter how hard he tried he could not think of any words to say that could possibly represent how he truly felt. In the end he gave up and came to the conclusion that he would have to as usual resort to winging it. With one last squeeze of Ginny's hand Harry made his way up to the stage and gazed out across the crowd. Every face had a haunted look all hung in grief. No one, not even Mrs Weasley looked as distraught as George. His eyes had dark rings underneath them. He had obviously not slept. And every now and then he glanced around as if expecting to see Fred. As Percy reached out to comfort him he drew away leaving Percy looking hurt. Mrs Weasley was sobbing in to Mr Weasley's shoulder. Ginny looked at him with encouragement s a single tear rolled down her face. He drew breath and spoke." Many people have called me a hero. They have called me this because of my acts of so called bravery. I don't call them acts of bravery. I call them necessary acts that any good person should do. And if they were acts of bravery then what do we call the acts of all those who died for us? For a better future? For if they aren't acts of true bravery then I don't know what is. For them to give up everything for trying to make the world a better, safer place for us to continue living in, they are the true hero's. As is every one who was willing to do the same. And no matter what house they were from Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff or even Slytherin showed unordinary acts of bravery the likes of which is rarely seen. And even though we will miss them with every fibre of our being. Their laugh, smile and jokes. Everything about them we will miss but knowing that they were good and strong and so, so brave just makes it that little bit more bearable. And when our grand children and great grandchildren ask weather Harry Potter was a hero? You answer no. No the true hero's were the ones ho died fighting for a better world and the hope that tomorrow will be better than the last. But what we must remember as we continue to grieve them is the words a very wise man once told me. Don't pity the dead. Pity the living and most of those who live without love." The silence was defining. But instead of applause or boos that Harry had so become accustom to over the past few days no one spoke or even moved. Until George rose and with steady tears streaming down his eyes and pointed his wand at the sky and a silver white substance shot out from the end of it. Then almost exactly at the same moment every one else followed suit. The sky was a wash with memories of all those who where lost to them. /p 


End file.
